Gas prices down slightly, but good news: We may have seen the high-water mark

The average gas price ticked down less than a cent nationally this past week, though Virginia saw a more pronounced drop – 5.6 cents per gallon.

Virginia drivers are paying an average of $3.48 a gallon today, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 4.081 stations in the Commonwealth.

Nationally, the average today is at $3.64 a gallon.

Diesel is at $4.12 a gallon today, down three cents from last week.

Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said Monday that the bigger news may be “that we may have seen a short-term peak for the price of gasoline.”

“While any unexpected outages could push it up again, there is a rising possibility that barring such, we may have seen our high water mark for the national average for the summer,” De Haan said. “Typically, gas prices peak between May and June, and with the oil market showing significant cracks in strength, we may have seen the peak in the national average already occur, a few weeks earlier than average.

“While it’s possible we could go higher later this summer should a major hurricane target sensitive infrastructure, it appears the odds that the national average will miss the $4 per gallon mark are rising. It’s certainly looking optimistic for motorists.”